The Sunnyside of the Deathhouse

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

Jim Christy’s wonderful first poetry collection dances around death in
a celebration of life. Christy does not mock death or trivialize it, or
even defy it as John Donne did in “Death be not proud.” Rather, he
shows us that in life we have a chance to live well, to be creative, and
to travel. It is the writers, musicians, and artists, according to
Christy, who show us the sunny side of the deathhouse, thus making the
thought of death bearable. Those he mentions or alludes to in his poems
include Jack Kerouac, Rousseau, Ma Rainey, Lester Young, and Jack
London. Christy also values travel highly, because to go places and
experience things is to outrun death, for a while.